• South Downs – Hiking at Kingley Vale

    South Downs – Hiking at Kingley Vale. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Part of the rolling chalk downland that surrounds Kingley Vale

    We opted to hike the trail counter-clockwise. The trail starts and ends running around the boundary of Kingly Vale. The first leg has open views across the fields to the southeast, it then turns left, heads northwest and starts to climb. That’s where I grabbed this picture.

    The fence-line to the left is part of Kingly Vale’s boundary and marks where the trail runs northeast until it turns north into the woodland across the top of the vale. You might expect that this is the view you will see from the trail. Unfortunately, it’s not. There is a steep and bramble covered bank topped by a barbed-wire fence between the trail and this view. The foreground is in shadow for a reason. This section of the trail runs through a heavily wooded area and those trees are casting the shadow.

    I caught a glimpse of the field from the trail and climbed the bank and fought my way a few feet through the brambles to get to the fence and a clear view. The play of light on the field and woods as the clouds drifted over was more than worth the effort. The resulting picture is, as Ginger would say, a very “Gary” photograph.

    Feed bag in the field.

    I have a confession to make. There was a feed bag or trash bag mounted on a couple of poles on the skyline in the middle of the frame. It was a huge visual distraction. At the time, I pondered how best to get a good picture with it there. In the end, I decided to edit it out afterward. Which is exactly what I did.

  • Feeding Stanley during lunch in Nicholson’s

    Feeding Stanley during lunch in Nicholson’s. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Vacation Day 6.

    Today we went for a walk. We had lunch, followed by more walking which somehow led to a bar, where we stopped for a drink and then we popped across the road for ice cream.

    The light in the restaurant was exceptional (probably due to the subdued light outside, which was in turn due to all the rain). I really like these pictures. There was one more — the best pose, but either me or the camera messed up — I suspect the latter in this instance, so it’s blurred. Shame. We are definitely enjoying the more relaxed approach to this vacation with our fixed residence and no touring.   

  • Grandpa

    Grandpa and Stanley. Copyright © 2019 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.
    Grandpa and Stanley. Copyright © 2019 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.
    Grandpa and Stanley. Copyright © 2019 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Grandma

    Grandma and Stanley. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Vacation Day 2

    Ginger getting some grandma practice in the Coffee Cup on the Eastney Seafront.

  • Newest Addition

    Newest Addition – does anyone else think he looks like Dr. Evil? Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I think Stanley currently has more than a passing resemblance to Dr. Evil… 🙂

  • Grandma and Stanley

    Grandma and Stanley. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Vacation Day 2.

  • Cross-eyed

    Newest Addition – does anyone else think he looks like Dr. Evil? Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Supper

    Gail and Stanley – late evening dessert in ‘The Coffee Cup’ Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Gail and Stanley – late evening dessert in ‘The Coffee Cup’ Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Fishermen in the dusk

    Fishermen in the dusk. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Sunset and Fish & Chip supper on South Parade Pier

    Sunset and Fish & Chip supper on South Parade Pier. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Vacation Day 2.

    Robert picked us up from the hotel as planned and brought us down to Portsmouth. We spent the afternoon saying hello to our new grandson, Stanley. Portsmouth is looking a lot grubbier and world-weary than I remember it, the UK’s ‘Austerity years‘ have taken their toll – that link is well worth following, the scope and impact of the austerity programme is startling. I well remember it’s beginning as I was trying to sell my UK house at the time and it lost around £200K in value in the process.

    We booked into our Air BnB, and it’s looking good. It’s well located and will make a great base for our stay. In the evening we took a walk along the seafront followed by a fish and chip supper on the pier, which we ate while we watched the sunset. On the way back, we popped into ‘The Coffee Cup’ on the seafront for some hot water for Stanley and dessert for the rest of us. It also provided more photo opportunities.

    It looks like silhouettes are my ‘thing’ of the moment. If I wanted to, the recorded image is good enough to bring out all the shadow detail, but that’s not what I wanted to capture. I love the warmth and story this picture tells.

    Sunset and Fish & Chip supper on South Parade Pier II. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Watching the Dawn

    Watching the dawn – Ginger soaking up the first light. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Dawn at 30,000 feet

    Dawn at 30,000 feet – SGF to ORD.Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Vacation Day 1

    We were up at 3 am, ready for Lanie to pick us up and take us to the airport for a 6 am flight to Chicago. It must be said that the sunrise seen from the plane made up for an early start. While we are gone Lanie is house and cat-sitting for us, keeping Tubby company, and feeding him his meds. We’ll see how much she enjoys being woken up by Tubbs several times per night.

    We’re trying a different strategy on this trip — We are crossing the Atlantic earlier in the day and spending our first night at Heathrow. This idea was prompted by the fact that booking a combined flight and hotel was a lot less expensive than booking the flights alone. I’m not one-hundred percent sure about the logic of that. Someone is obviously making far too much profit on the flights for it to make sound business sense.

    The flight out of Chicago to London was at 9:30 am, so we had just enough time to face up to the hustle and bustle of Chicago ORD and find some breakfast. I was planning to work on the flight (on a nice new 787), but a lack of sleep and a determination not to sleep on the plane meant I ended up watching back-to-back movies in ‘brainless mode’. Our arrival time (22:45 local) meant immigration was a breeze, 10-15 minutes instead of the normal half to three-quarters of an hour. We missed the hotel shuttle service which shuts down for 4-5 hours a day (so much for the advertised 24-hour service), However, Google found us a free bus, which was an unexpected bonus.

    Once at the hotel, we were unable to check-in because their computers were down … So, by midnight we were sitting in the bar enjoying a complimentary pint of beer while they sorted out their computer woes. All in all, not a bad way to start our time in the UK. Tomorrow Robert is coming to pick us up to take us to Portsmouth.

    The flights aren’t the only different strategy we are trying. We have rented an Air BnB in Portsmouth for our time in the UK. There are no plans except catching up with family in Portsmouth and spending time with our new grandson and our first grandchild. We’re not renting a car, and we are not traveling around. By doing so we hope it will make for a more restful trip.

    In another departure from our usual routine, I’ll be traveling back alone as I have a tonne of work to get done and can’t be away for more than a couple of weeks — Convention is earlier this year and the volunteer committees that don’t have to do the work, apparently don’t realize that three months’ notice is not enough time for a part-time member of staff to devise, plan, shoot, and edit a complete 10-plus minute video, and at the same time perform their normal duties. Ginger’s extended stay includes teaching in the UK and Sweden, plus attending a workshop in Prague. She’ll get back just in time to wave goodbye as I head off for Convention. It’s almost a repeat of the June/July 2018, when she was away working for two weeks, and a day or two after she got back I went to Austin, Texas for General Convention for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, the diocesan convention will only require one night away. Then it’ll be time to start catching up on everything I couldn’t do while I was sorting out the convention video. Oh, and if I’m fit enough, maybe it’s time for some backpacking. I need some time in the woods.   

  • Medication

    Medication – Try as I might to get the doctors to take me off of some of these pills, they want me to take more. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Pride comes before a fall they say. I guess I shouldn’t have felt so pleased with myself back in April when I managed to convince my doctor to let me drop my blood pressure pills. I’d been dieting and exercising (a bit), and I stopped drinking alcohol too, to get my blood pressure down, and it worked. What I (and the doctor) didn’t realize at the time was that the same pills were also keeping my potentially wonky heart from going into AFIB. Well, that’s what the cardiologist has told me.

    The pretty orange and white pills seen here are a slow-release drug that’s supposed to keep my heart slow and regular. The cute yellow ones are simply coated aspirin to help prevent a stroke if I go into AFIB again. The cardiologist wants me to take stronger anticoagulants. I pushed back (hard) on that. I have a grudging agreement that if I can get to my ideal weight, and things are okay when I exercise, that I might try dropping the heart meds though the likelihood is I’ll be taking them ad infinitum.

    Since June I’ve been on a more intense diet — I call it my ‘Hungry is Good’ diet, and I’ve lost another eight pounds and I’m starting to see the results. My BMI is now almost down to the top end of ‘Ideal’ BMI scale, and have just another eight pounds to go to my ideal weight for me. Once the cooler weather gets here, I’m planning on getting back out on the trails — I still need to get to the gym first to check I’m not going to have any problems if I push myself far from medical assistance. The problem is I hate the gym. I’ve had four gym memberships now, and I’ve not liked or lasted long with any of them (Shhh. don’t tell, but to be honest, I’ve not set foot in the latest gym since I got my membership, nearly a year ago).

    The khaki and pink ones are calcium channel blockers (I think that’s right and I can’t be bothered to look it up). I call them ‘ Piss pills,’ though the intent is the opposite. I take those to deal with an enlarged prostate.

    Genetics being what they are, my boys are probably in for some fun in later life.

  • It’s tough being Tubby

    It’s tough being Tubby – Tubby, a few days ago, just about to turn 17. He spends most of his days asleep on my office couch. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    We have a new nickname for him — Roomba. Poor blind Tubby earned it by the way he navigates around the house. He’ll walk off in a random direction until he hits a wall and then head off in some other random direction. He does this until he gets where he wants to go — which can take a long time. Also, like the Roomba, sometimes his wheel sensor fails and he walks round and round in circles…

    He spends most of the day asleep on my office couch, and most of the night annoying Ginger (and me) climbing around the bed and complaining loudly (presumably) because no one is petting him.

    He now has the dubious pleasure of being the oldest survivor of our four cats. For a blind, asthmatic, half-deaf, cat with kidney failure and high blood pressure and more meds than I’m on, that’s quite an achievement.

  • Garage Project – Just about done

    Garage Project – Just about done … For now. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    … For now.

    I’ve been tinkering with finishing this project for a few weeks now. I fitted the sliding doors to the top shelf and the ceiling rack (to the left of my kayak) for storing lengths of lumber back in August.

    Sliding door height gauge – When I realized the garage ceiling wasn’t level I needed some easy way to optimize the door heights across the twelve-foot span. This was it. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    The top sliding doors were not without their challenges. I knew the garage floor sloped, that makes sense, water and fumes need to be able to flow out of the door away from the house. However, I hadn’t noticed that the ceiling wasn’t level – there’s about ½” to 1″ difference across the 12′ span. Either that or my spirit level needs adjusting… That raised a problem with the top doors, which slide in a track fixed to the ceiling. Musing over how to work out the best height for the doors — one that allowed me to easily insert and remove them, but also held them in place — I made myself this little gauge, which I used to experiment with different heights. The ceiling was out by too much though, so had I make the doors at each end a different height, but the gauge enabled me to optimize the doors to work over a larger span.

    Sliding doors – hopefully, to keep the dust out of the top shelf. Hmmm. I’m going to have to tackle that flaky ceiling at some point. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Workbench storage revisited

    Where the boxes used to live. That cross brace made them stick out too far. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    One of the main goals of the project was to try and declutter and improve access to everything. A major issue with the original build of the workbench and storage was that I used a load of cat litter boxes for storage. The boxes are great, but they stuck out four inches and would catch on bags and clothing as you walked past. Some of my tools stuck out a bit too. Changes were needed.

    While I was building the end units I made mental notes of issues using the bench and accessing tools etc. Last weekend (and some evenings this week), I’ve rearranged where I keep most of my tools and I replaced the cat litter boxes with drawers. I also built the final drawer for the ‘suck and blow’ (Vacuum cleaner and compressor) closet.

    The drawers are pretty primitive, and I could have made a better job of them, but they are holding all my screws, nails, brads, sanding belts and pads, safety equipment (masks, gloves, glasses, etc.), and more besides! And they don’t stick out.

    Garage Project – Workbench revisited: rearranged with new drawers. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Garage Workbench – waiting to be decluttered. There are a few tools here I no longer use, and lots of things just sitting on shelves because I have nowhere else to keep them. I’m hoping a few more drawers might at least remove the clutter from view and stop it collecting dust. On the workbench is the frame for the doors to the new storage area, and my nifty $1 yard sale find drill press. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    My new shelves all finished. Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Still to do …

    Quite a lot, but I’ll save that for Stage IV ( or is it V? I’ve lost track).

    • Paint the back door.
    • Fit trim around the back door.
    • Doors and external ventilation for the Suck and Blow closet.
    • Dust extractor and vacuum connections plumbed to the workbench.
    • Compressed air plumbed to the workbench.
    • Re-wiring, and wire in new sockets (Needs an electrician. A pox on code is all I can say. I could do this easily)
    • Install an AC Unit.
    • Repaint the ceiling.

  • The light of the world

    The light of the world. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” — John 8:12

    I popped back into the church for a last look around. The cleaner had finished, and all the lights were off. The light from the windows was reflecting off of the cross which was shining in the dark.

    I knew the title and the passage from John to accompany this picture before I pressed the shutter button.

  • Stained glass window in the Chapel of The Good Shepherd

    Matthew, Mark, and John. Stained glass window in the Chapel of The Good Shepherd, Christ Episcopal Church. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Matthew, Mark, and John. This stained glass window is in the Chapel of The Good Shepherd, Christ Episcopal Church. We’ll forego the debate on the full meaning of the sacrificial lamb. I’ve no idea why the saints are represented by animals. I guess we’d need to ask the original artist — probably long gone, as this widow was ‘discovered’ during a building refurb in 2006-7. From the blank pane, it looks like it was going to have a dedication added.

    Whatever its history and meaning, the colors are wonderful.

  • Altar and Stained Glass

    Altar and Stained Glass – Christ Episcopal Church. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    This morning I had a meeting at Christ Church. When it was over I went to find pictures to accompany evening prayers. The altar was bathed in a pool of light where the cleaner had turned on the altar spotlights and left the rest of the lights off. It made for a picture I couldn’t resist. I did have to move the vacuum cleaner out of the shot before I took the picture which makes it sound rather mundane, but I love empty churches. I find something very calming and soothing about them. I particularly like having churches to myself. I can be as reverent (or irreverent) as the mood takes me and there’s no one around to know. Empty churches are probably not the best publicity shots, but I like them.   

  • Garage Project – Open Sez-a-me

    Doors made and fitted. This was the key element of my idea. It’ll keep the worst of the dust out of the storage area. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Reminder: This is what it looked like three weeks ago. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Phew! I’m getting there. Notice how there’s a ceiling in the entryway, as well as doors? — the entryway ceiling was there on August 9, but I forgot to mention it — The doors took a lot longer to make than I expected. A lot of time is wasted moving stuff around and setting up the saw cuts. A single car garage is a bit small for working with 4′ x 8′ sheets. Especially when you are trying to be careful to not damage the finish. Unusually for me, I am relying on glue alone (Loctite Ultimate Power Grab) to hold the front and back skins of the doors to the internal frames I made. I suspect that the two doors exceed the manufacturer’s 50lb door weight limit on the door track, but I’ve beefed up the track with some extra screws.

    There is still lots to do, like fitting doors to the top shelf to keep the dust out of there too, then there’s plumbing in the compressor and shop vac so that I can access them at the workbench, some more drawers to make, and I’m planning on fitting an AC unit out here as it gets hot, and making a tool cart to fit in the remaining space in the storage area.

    Most of that will keep for the moment. More important is putting up a rack to go up near the ceiling to the left of the kayaks to hold long pieces of lumber up out of the way. If I do that and get rid of the rest of the detritus from removing the old workbench and then maybe the minivan will be allowed back in the garage.

  • Garage Project – Main storage area and the overhead shelving

    Main storage area – and the overhead shelving is finished too. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    This project is starting to come together, though there are still a lot of details to attend to before it will be finished. The track for the sliding doors is in place. I could have bought a 12ft length of track for $33, but the delivery charge was $125! So I opted to buy two six-foot lengths of track ($18 each) and hope that the join doesn’t prove to be too much of a problem.

    Lots of off-cuts. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    All this construction has produced a lot of sawdust and a big pile of off-cuts, but with the shelves up I’ve been able to start putting things away again. I’ve also disposed of a lot of stuff, visiting two recycling plants and dropping some re-usable items off at Habitat for Humanity for them to sell on.

    With all the main construction finished I’ve also started cleaning up as the next job is to make the doors for the storage area. I have to make them as they need to be 39 inches wide and just one and three-eighth inches deep.   

    Clearing Up – I’ve visited two recycling plants and Habitat for Humanity getting rid of things we no longer need. Copyright © 2019 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
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